PITTSBURGH _ Conor Sheary may have grown up cheering for the Bruins, but since breaking into the NHL, he has made a habit of being a thorn in their side.
Sheary scored twice as the Penguins beat the Bruins, 5-1, Sunday at PPG Paints Arena for their fourth win in a row.
In five career games against the Bruins, Sheary, a Massachusetts native, has scored seven points in five career games against his hometown team.
The game was interrupted late in the first period when there was a problem with the ice surface along the boards near one of the faceoff circles. The teams took the first intermission with 6:26 left in the first period while the ice crew tried to fix the issue.
They returned from the break to finish the final few minutes of the first, took a one-minute break to switch sides, and got right back at it with the second period.
Even with only a 60-second break between periods, the Penguins still managed to translate it into some momentum.
Just 18 seconds into the second, Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust created a 2-on-1 against Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara. Crosby slid an inch-perfect pass to Rust's stick, and Rust pushed it past Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask for his 12th goal of the season.
The assists on Rust's goal came from Crosby and Sheary, and the trio struck again a few minutes later to double the Penguins' lead. After a scramble in front of Rask, Sheary collected the puck and fired it into the net to put the Penguins up 2-0 at 9:06 of the second.
The Bruins got a goal back later in the second on a David Krejci slap shot from the top of the right circle that beat Penguins goalie Matt Murray. Krejci's goal made the score 2-1 at 13:49 of the second period.
Murray was otherwise solid, stopping 44 of the Bruins' 45 shots, including denying David Backes on a breakaway with 4:49 left in the second period.
Patric Hornqvist added his 11th goal of the season at 1:40 of the third to put the Penguins up 3-1, and Sheary tallied his second of the game just over a minute later. Crosby got in on the action with a power-play goal at 4:27 of the third for his league-leading 28th score of the season.
The Penguins return to action Tuesday at home against St. Louis. They'll have one more game after that _ a return date against the Bruins in Boston _ before the NHL's All-Star break next weekend.
